Last week and this week, I’m turning the reviewing over to my friend Neil. He’s from upstate New York but is currently living in the Netherlands. Ironically enough, his guest posts are about Chinese candy.

Today is Neil’s last post (for now, at least). Thanks for the funny and thoughtful work Neil!

A labmate went home to China to celebrate the New Year and brought back a lot of candy to share. I asked her to select some for me. Here were my impressions.

(NB: I originally thought the picture on the wrapper was of cherries. It’s definitely of peaches. This knowledge makes the review funny-ha-ha-Neil-can’t-recognize-fruit as opposed to just funny-ha-ha.)

Finally, I consumed the red treat I could not find any English for. The packaging required some dexterity, as it had cute gold twist-ties.

It’s exotic and fun. An image of cherries on the label thankfully gave me a hint of what flavor to expect, one in conflict with the physical appearance of the candy itself: a translucent yellow cylinder, the size of half of my thumb. The exterior was textured in a speckled way.

This was not an extra layer of granulated sugar, or if it was, it was extra fine and fairly well embedded. The texture of the piece felt dense but squished quickly, just the right level of gumminess. (Is it obvious I’m not normally a candy reviewer? I have marginally more experience with beer writing.)

The cherry flavor, though present and natural-seeming, was not what I’m used to with Haribo cherries or Jolly Ranchers. I am again reminded of how I’m “spoiled” by American SUPERDENSEFLAVORPACKING in so many foods. This also merits an OM.